Marc Jacobs has dressed everyone from supermodels to Hollywood royalty, so naturally the next logical client on his imaginary roster is… Luigi Mangione.
During a recent Vanity Fair lie-detector test, Jacobs was shown a photo of Mangione wearing the now-famous red sweater and white button-down combination. Asked what he would put the accused killer in, Jacobs offered a surprisingly generous fashion review: Mangione “looks pretty good the way he dresses, actually.”
And apparently, Jacobs was not alone in the assessment. The interviewer pointed out that Mangione’s red sweater helped send shoppers scrambling, with Nordstrom reportedly selling out of similar styles. Was Mangione a trendsetter? Jacobs agreed.
Which is quite a sentence to emerge from a conversation about fashion.
To be clear, Jacobs was discussing Mangione’s clothes—not endorsing the allegations against him or turning a criminal case into a runway review. Mangione pleaded guilty federally this month in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while his New York state murder case remains pending.
Still, fashion has always had a peculiar talent for turning unlikely figures into style references. One minute you’re scrolling through courtroom photos; the next, everyone is suddenly asking whether they need a red crewneck.
Jacobs, meanwhile, has spent decades proving that fashion can find inspiration in almost anything. But perhaps the biggest irony here is that Mangione may have stumbled into the most powerful fashion accessory of all: controversy.
Forget “quiet luxury.” This season, apparently, the hottest look is courtroom chic—with a side of polygraph.
